Seemingly a continuation of the tortured pop-meets-classical minimalism of Scott Walker's Tilt, Pola X is actually a more varied introduction to Walker's late-career journey into avant-garde composition. While there are certainly glimpses of the difficult yet masterful dissonance of Tilt, there are also several beautifully orchestrated passages that build on some of the themes of the previous album, but do so by taking them in a much more immediately accessible direction. Aside from a brief sample from Tilt's "The Cockfighter" buried in "The Time Is Out of Joint," Walker's iconic voice is silent on Pola X; however, this does not detract from the power of his dark soundscapes. Walker's later work is notoriously difficult to penetrate, and there may be no better place to start than his soundtrack compositions for Pola X.
